Senior Legal Counsel - Insurance

About the Role

Bring your legal expertise to a senior in-house role where you'll work across complex insurance matters, regulatory issues, products and commercial arrangements. We're looking for an experienced Senior Legal Counsel - Insurance to join our Risk and Legal team. This exciting new permanent position can be based in our Auckland or Wellington office. In this role, you'll provide expert, pragmatic legal advice across MAS's general and life insurance businesses, with a particular focus on insurance policy interpretation, coverage issues, claims management, disputes, product documentation and regulatory obligations. You'll operate with a high degree of autonomy and work closely with Claims, Product, Underwriting, Compliance, Risk, Operations, Technology and senior leaders, translating complex legal and regulatory issues into clear, practical advice that supports good Member outcomes and sound commercial decision-making.

Responsibilities

• This is a broad senior legal role with a strong insurance focus.
• You'll:
• Provide expert legal advice on insurance policy interpretation, coverage issues, claims response, liability, exclusions and policy application
• Advise on complex, sensitive and contentious insurance claims, complaints, disputes and Member remediation matters
• Support litigation and pre-litigation matters, including instructing and managing external legal providers where required
• Provide legal input into complaint responses, dispute resolution processes and settlement options
• Support the design, development, review and maintenance of insurance products, policy wordings, underwriting guidelines and Member-facing documentation
• Advise on product changes, product governance and documentation risks
• Provide legal support across regulatory obligations affecting insurers, including conduct, licensing, prudential, disclosure, consumer protection and complaints-related requirements
• Monitor emerging legal and regulatory developments affecting insurers and help MAS understand and respond to their impact
• Draft, review and negotiate commercial contracts and service provider arrangements
• Work collaboratively across MAS to support quality decision-making and practical, timely outcomes.

Qualifications

• You'll bring:
• A Bachelor of Laws (LLB or equivalent)
• A current New Zealand practising certificate, or eligibility to hold one

Required Skills

• Significant legal experience, ideally including in-house experience within insurance, financial services or another regulated environment
• Strong experience advising on insurance law, policy interpretation, insurance claims, disputes, complaints or regulatory matters
• Experience drafting, reviewing and negotiating commercial contracts or provider arrangements
• Experience working with senior stakeholders and providing practical, business-focused legal advice
• Strong commercial judgement and an understanding of the operational realities of a financial services environment
• The ability to translate complex legal and regulatory matters into clear, concise and practical advice
• The confidence to exercise sound judgement, work autonomously and escalate material or high-risk matters appropriately.
• You'll bring a pragmatic, solutions-focused approach and will be comfortable balancing legal and regulatory risk with commercial considerations and good outcomes for Members.

About the Company

About MAS We're a New Zealand owned insurance and investment company with a difference. As a mutual, we're owned by our Members and make meaningful contributions to our community through our charitable foundation. At MAS, you'll join a team that's:

• Motivated to make a difference
• Focused on delivering high quality outcomes for our Members
• Guided by our values: Make a difference, In it together and Own it, do it
• Supportive, inclusive and committed to helping each other succeed
• Looked after with a range of benefits including Health and Life insurance, Income Protection Insurance and a 6% KiwiSaver contribution when you join the MAS KiwiSaver Scheme

If you're excited about this opportunity but don't meet every requirement listed, we'd still encourage you to apply. We'd love to hear from you.